Where need exists, work underway in Marin to shore up public buildings

In the wake of Sunday's 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Napa, work is under way to shore up some of Marin's oldest, most vulnerable government buildings, while many others are already in good shape seismically, officials said Tuesday.

San Rafael's city manager and fire chief are working on a plan to rebuild or retrofit the city's seven fire stations using funds from a measure passed by voters in November, while the county points with pride to its new "earthquake-proof" emergency operations center and Novato touts two new city buildings downtown.

"All the facilities require significant modifications in order to meet current seismic safety requirements," said San Rafael Fire Chief Chris Gray, referring to the town's fire stations. "The one I work in (Fire Station 51 in downtown San Rafael) was built in 1916."

"We know the conditions have not improved," Gray said of the town's fire stations. A study done in 2003 for the city by Group 4 Architecture Research and Planning Inc. indicated the facilities did not meet earthquake safety standards.

In November 2013, San Rafael voters passed a tax increase specifically targeted at earthquake-retrofitting emergency personnel buildings, among other things. The measure created a total three-quarter-cent increase from pre-2005 levels.

"The city is taking steps now. We are in the process of working to evaluate the fire facilities and study the best use of these funds," Gray said.

"The police communications center on the first floor of City Hall" is a candidate along with the fire stations, said San Rafael City Manager Nancy Mackle. "I have a two-member subcommittee of the City Council working with me and my staff on this. We will be going through a process to consider costs and risks and utilization."

Gray said the hope is to have recommendations before the City Council around the latter part of this year and the beginning of the next. "The council will be making the decisions," the fire chief said.

With regard to the city of Novato, "The city had a comprehensive study of our public facilities completed last year. While there are investments to be made, Novato's open public facilities meet seismic codes and are overall in good shape assuming ongoing proactive maintenance investments continue," said Cathy Capriola, Novato's assistant city manager.

"The city does have a number of closed historic and older facilities that are not in use and would require seismic and other code upgrades before any reuse," Capriola said. Examples of these are the long-shuttered former theater, bachelor officers' quarters and hospital on land at Hamilton Field, Novato's former Air Force base.

The city is working to make it possible for these buildings to be developed, but they are presently vacant and closed to the public. Other examples are the closed-up bungalows downtown and the Community House.

"With the recent investment in the city administrative office building and the City Council chambers, Novato is fortunate to have its core services provided in new facilities," Capriola said. New, seismically safe city offices opened downtown in November, next to the red council chambers building that opened in 2010.

As to the city of Mill Valley, "A survey was done back in the 1990s partially to determine how many unreinforced buildings there were in a particular jurisdiction and to retrofit them. As far as I know, every unreinforced masonry building in Mill Valley has been reinforced since then," said Dan Martin, building official with the city of Mill Valley.

The seismic history of the Marin Civic Center is something of a history lesson as told by Bill Kelley, deputy director of building and safety for the Marin County Community Development Agency.

"The Civic Center was built in the 1950s and retrofitted in the 1980s, a major undertaking, and you can see evidence (of the retrofit) here in the Civic Center," Kelley said.

"It's a long building," Kelley said, in something of an understatement for anyone who has ever seen the place. "The offices used to be completely open, with non-structural partitions. In the 1980s long lateral ties were installed, and rigid concrete walls. This strengthens the building on its weak axis.

"So if we have an earthquake, the building is naturally designed to be stronger in its lengthwise direction. It would take more of a force to dislodge it lengthwise than sideways because it is long and narrow. So the effort in the 1980s was to strengthen it in the sideways direction. New concrete walls increased the rigidity of the building and tied the two halves of the building together," Kelley said.

Additionally, "the new Marin emergency operations center at 1600 Los Gamos Road is a state-of-the-art facility," Kelley said. When the center, a remodel of an existing building, was being constructed, "the first thing we did in that process was to upgrade the building itself, the structure, to meet seismic safety standards," Kelley said.

The public safety building opened this year at the Marin Commons complex near the freeway and Lucas Valley Road and cost $82 million. Of the overall cost, $53 million went for remodeling, quake-proofing and furnishings.

The quake may have an economic effect on Marin County. "We are confident that our members will be ready to help with the various rebuilding projects that are needed immediately (in Napa), as well as the infrastructure projects," said Rick Wells, chief executive of the Marin Builders Association.

"Caltrans gave us a call at 6:47 a.m. Sunday," said Mike Ghilotti of Ghilotti Bros. Inc., in San Rafael. "They wanted to make sure we had crews on standby." As the state agency continues to investigate, Ghilotti said, his employees can be deployed immediately if called, though they are continuing with existing jobs.

"Several of our member contractors were already active in the Napa and Solano markets before the recent quake. Some are already on the job helping with cleanup, repair and rebuilding," Wells said.